* * *
The sight of Samantha crossing the Serenity square on foot hadn’t surprised John nearly as much as he’d thought it would. Clearly, she’d followed through with her former notion and had asked someone from work to give her a lift into town from the hospital. That made perfect sense. He just felt let down—and pretty ridiculous, if he were honest with himself. After all, he and Sam were no longer a couple. Not even close. So why were his emotions lingering so close to the surface?
Deciding to act on a whim instead of heeding his personal misgivings, he sought out Levi Kelso and found him in his small, private office. “Are we done with the Rochard car, Chief?”
“I think so. Harlan had Adelaide dust it for prints but everything was pretty smudged. I don’t think she got anything usable.”
“We can release it, then? I thought I’d see about returning it.”
“Fine, if you don’t mind sitting on a pile of shredded foam.”
“Maybe I’ll call around and see if I can find a couple of decent replacement seats first. Is that fella who collected wrecks still out on Highway 9?”
“Naw. He gave up fixing old cars and went into the metal-recycling business years ago.”
“Well, I can at least try to repair the driver’s area so Samantha—I mean Ms. Rochard—can use her car.”
The chief made a sound halfway between a snicker and a snort. “Might as well call her Samantha. Everybody else does. You’re trying so hard to make us believe you’re not interested in her, it’s comical. Man up and admit it. You still have a thing for her.”
“She’s an old friend. That’s all.”
“Okay, have it your way. Walt can follow you out to the Rochard place and bring you back.”
“Actually,” John said, checking the time, “I thought I’d wait till Sam gets off duty, pick her up at the hospital then bring her by here so she can drive her car home herself.”
“And that way you can tail her?”
John nodded soberly. “Yes. I have a bad feeling this whole mess is far from over.”
“Okay. Suit yourself. There’s a roll of duct tape in the storage closet. You can use that for patching. Adelaide mentioned that those seats looked even worse than she’d thought when she’d gone over the car for evidence. Must be pretty bad.”
“They are. Thanks. I’ll be out back if you need me.”
His mind still focused on Samantha, John got the tape and headed for the parking area where the tow truck had left Sam’s old sedan. When he opened the driver’s door and looked inside, his jaw dropped.
Adelaide was right. This wasn’t the way the car had looked when it had been towed into town. Now, the rip in the front seat far outdid the damage to the rear one, meaning that somebody had completed a thorough search while the car was parked right there behind the sheriff’s department and Serenity police headquarters!
Turning on his heel John hurried back inside. “Chief! We need to dust the Rochard car again. Right now.”
“Why?” Kelso rose slowly, both hands on his desk, and leaned forward, scowling. “What’s going on?”
“The seats do look worse than before. Somebody’s been at them again.”
“You’re joking.”
John shook his head. “I’m totally serious. I know what that car looked like when I left it and it’s nothing like what’s out there now. Trust me. Whoever was searching it wasn’t done. They finished their job in our parking lot.”
Chief Kelso muttered under his breath. He was not only angry, he was embarrassed to have had more vandalism occur right under his nose. “All right. Grab an evidence kit and we’ll go over the car ourselves before anything else happens to it. You can impress me with some of that expertise you picked up in Dallas.”
“Yes, sir.”
While the chief paused to let their dispatcher know where he was going, John pulled a fingerprint kit. His thoughts kept going back to Sam, to how she would react when he told her there had been a further search of her car. He was not looking forward to explaining how that could have happened or why they didn’t have a real impound yard that was closed to outsiders the way larger departments did.
Behind him, Levi suddenly blurted out, “Fire!”
John whirled. Looked for the source within the office. That’s when he saw his chief pointing at the back door and starting to run toward it while shouting, “Somebody call the fire department!” and grabbing a fistful of keys off pegs by the rear door.